SR traffic test gets the green light

The Santa Rosa City Council agreed Tuesday to make College Avenue, one of the city's most problematic thoroughfares, the test case for a high-tech system aimed at helping speed traffic across town.

The council awarded a $546,000 contract to TransCore ITS of Pleasanton to install the computerized, camera-equipped monitoring system along a 1.4-mile stretch of College between Dutton Avenue and North Street.

The system, said city supervising engineer Rob Sprinkle, will provide ongoing instantaneous analysis of traffic flow and change lights at the eight intersections with signals along College to ease congestion, reduce backups and provide more opportunities for pedestrians and bicyclists to cross the street.

Sprinkle said the timing of the lights currently is pre-set, which reduces their efficiency in moving cars quickly when traffic patterns change due to construction, an accident or when nearby schools are in session.

The new system will adjust the lights to match the needs, Sprinkle said.

Sprinkle said College Avenue is the perfect test case to see if the system eases congestion and reduces travel times by at least 10 percent as promised, partly because traffic flow can fluctuate substantially when Santa Rosa High School and Santa Rosa Junior College are in session.

"It's a good first test because there are a lot of traffic fluctuations along it," he said.

On average, 15,000 to 34,000 cars a day travel various sections of College Avenue.

Sprinkle said equipping the traffic lights with monitoring cameras, installing the necessary software and testing to see how well it works will take about four months.

If successful, city officials plan to spend $5 million or more over the next few years to equip a half-dozen major traffic corridors with similar systems.

Sprinkle said cities such as Menlo Park have used the system on some major thoroughfares and recorded reductions in travel time of as much as 28 percent.

Santa Rosa Mayor Bob Blanchard indicated he's already counting on the program being successful.

"We could have two, three systems in place by the end of the year," he said.

Sprinkle said a 1.2-mile section of Guerneville Road/Steele Lane between Coffey Lane and Mendocino Avenue and a stretch of Farmers Lane are next in line.

Other streets the city eventually plans to add are Santa Rosa Avenue south of Highway 12 and portions of Fulton Road and Mendocino Avenue.

Sprinkle said the city currently has $1 million to fund some of the projects.